Global Ad Technology
Supervisory Department
We are the global technology team
that supports the advertisement
of Japan's largest e-commerce
platform.
Rakuten's ad business boasts Japan's top-class share of e-commerce advertising.
We collect, analyze, and
utilize vast amounts of traffic data gathered from a wide range of services
and support Rakuten Group
marketing solutions from our bases in Japan, Singapore, China and India.
Our Business
Becoming a Leader in the Next Generation of Advertising Business
At Rakuten we have built one of the world’s largest data ecosystems,
based on the Rakuten IDs from
ourplatform Rakuten Ichiba.
In addition to Rakuten Ichiba’s e-commerce business,
we are also developing
services that are closely related to consumers’everyday life,
such as credit cards, banks and
telecommunications.
As a result, there are more than 100 million Rakuten members in Japan alone,
and a
global user base that has surpassed 1.6 billion.
This has allowed Rakuten Group to accumulate a vast
amount of analyzable data.
Interview with our TopCTO Interview
Ad Technology and the Future of Rakuten
From now on ads will become more familiar.
Rakuten wants to create a worldview that makes users and advertisers happy.
Teruji Hoshino
Executive officer, Rakuten Group, Inc.
Director, Global Ad Technology Supervisory Department (Tech Div)
CTO, A&M Company
Director, IP&PM Technology Supervisory Department (C&E Company)
Joined Rakuten in 2003 as an engineer for Rakuten Point. Since then, he has been involved in launching Rakuten Pay's online service, the Traffic Gate project and the acquisition of LinkShare. He has also served as a senior manager on the Ad Tech team and Books Tech. Since 2014, he has been the director of the Ad Tech team, heading the Ad Tech teams around the world from our Singapore office.
01
Rakuten leads EC advertising in Japan.
What do you think about the future of
advertising at GATD?
At GATD we are in charge of advertising technology.
Our goal as a team is to provide what the customer wants at the moment they want it. To create a world in
which our customer is not even conscious of having seen advertising.
Advertising usually has a negative impression, like noise, but ideally it should be as convenient as being
unaware of the ad and that the customer naturally came across what they were looking for. We would like to
make that kind of experience a reality with technology that users, advertisers and Rakuten itself can all
benefit from.
I think that the general public is not often aware of it, but there are times when the display of recommended products on a website is actually advertising and times when it is not. For example, when you buy bread at a convenience store, tea might be recommended to you. The reason is that many people buy tea together when they buy bread, so it is recommended to you too. Only when you are suggested a tea brand in particular does it really become advertising.
We would like to create a worldview that makes advertisers, Rakuten, and everyone who sees advertisements feel that their life is more convenient and happier, with advertising that feels unobtrusive. Also, by leveraging Rakuten’s vast amount of data accumulation, analysis and utilization, we would like to continue exploring various possibilities for matching advertisers with users, even in the area of discovery that the user is conscious of.
02
Tell us about the areas GATD is currently focusing on.
At Singapore’s Central Business District, Raffles Place Office
There are two areas on which we are currently focusing.
The first is mobile. We were already expanding advertising outside of et-commerce, but in particular, we
would like to support Rakuten Mobile with our advertising business. The second is offline. This means
developing offline marketing with the expertise we have wcultivated online.
On the one side, Rakuten Mobile is a gateway toward expanding Rakuten’s economic zone, as it’s a big opportunity for users to use points and get to know other services. GATD is working on whether, for example, it is possible to provide services at a lower cost by displaying advertisements on Rakuten Mobile using advertising technology.
On the other side, although offline purchasing in stores is not very active at the present, we think that we can create the same worldview as we do online in the future. This is because, through recent alliances with retailers such as Tokyu and Seiyu, Rakuten Pay and other Rakuten point card member stores that you can see in the city, Rakuten's vast amount of user data and store behavior are being combined and utilized to create business insights. We match advertisements with suggestions by staying close to people’s daily activities, both online and offline. Our vision is to develop technology for such promotions to coexist seamlessly in both the online and offline world.
From these two points, it can be said that GATD is being developed with an awareness of strengthening the service connection of Rakuten as a whole.
03
Tell us about GATD as an organization.
Japan, Singapore, China and India, which are our main bases, are the greatest talent hubs in Asia. There is only one reason why we want to set up big bases in those four countries and accelerate diversity: by working with people from different perspectives and backgrounds, we can create an environment where new opinions and ideas can be exchanged. We want to accelerate diversity and, as a result, accelerate innovation!
Our GATD organization chart is not divided by country. It may be said that Rakuten's GATD is unique in the sense that one organization is a team that has bases in multiple countries. The desire to be one team regardless of age, nationality, gender or location reflects not only GATD but also the open culture of the entire Rakuten Group.
Personally, I want the team to interact with one another regardless of who they are or where they are, so their location makes as little difference as possible. When considering what kind of environment in which people are motivated grow, it must be a soil that encourages innovation, and diversity is necessary for that. GATD is made up of some of the most diverse teams in the Rakuten Group.
04
A word for those who are considering applying to work in GATD.
GATD is a team that utilizes cutting-edge technology with a service that supports the enormous traffic of the entire Rakuten Group. Among Rakuten's diverse groups, it is also a department which offers many technical challenges in controlling a vast amount of data. To put it in another way, there are enormous possibilities for utilizing such data. As there are many challenges, I want to work with people who can suggest openly what they want to do!
We encourage a culture of openness and self-education. As a diverse team, I think it's an environment where you can enjoy developing yourself along with diverse people and working hard together. If you think the world of advertising looks interesting, we are looking forward to your application!
Careers
Producer
- Project/Product Manager
- Tech Consultant/Solution Architect
Engineer
- Application Engineer/Server Side
Engineer/Data Engineer - System Architect/Tech Lead
QA/DevOps Engineer
- QA Engineer
- DevOps Engineer
Other
- Corporate IT
- Other (HR, General affairs etc)